Olympus M.Zuiko ED 60mm F2 8 Macro Review | 54 Data compared

The ePhotoZine review highlights the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens as a lightweight, compact, and weather-sealed lens, offering excellent sharpness and a 1:1 reproduction ratio with a dedicated focus limiter. The lens features fast, precise autofocus, though it can exhibit focus hunting in low light or struggle with 1:1 autofocus, and it notably lacks an included lens hood.

The Photography Life review identifies the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens as a stellar, lightweight option for Micro Four Thirds, highlighting its exceptional sharpness, full weatherproofing, and a practical focus limiter switch for precise 1:1 macro work. While suitable for detailed work, the lens lacks built-in image stabilization, requires a separate lens hood purchase, and suffers from a reduced maximum aperture at close-up ranges.

The initial review on Pete's-PhotoWorld.co.uk provides an early hands-on assessment of the Olympus 60mm F2.8 macro lens during outings to the Blashford Lakes nature reserve. Tested on an Olympus EM5 MkII camera, the reviewer highlights several prominent pros of this dedicated optic. It features a lightweight design, enables 1:1 close-range macro photography, and provides smooth, continuous focusing from 1:1 up to infinity. Additionally, its physical build is highly praised for being dustproof and splashproof, making it reliable in outdoor settings. A built-in focus dial also improves usability by letting photographers quickly restrict or shift the focus range between three distinct distances: 0.19–0.4m, 0.19m–infinity, or 0.4m–infinity.

The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f2.8 Macro is a weather-sealed lens designed for Micro Four Thirds cameras, offering a full-frame equivalent field of view of 120mm. Retailing at a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $499.99, it stands out by providing true 1:1 macro magnification and can focus on subjects as close as 7.4 inches. Unlike many macro lenses that extend during focusing, this model retains a fixed physical size of 3.2 by 2.2 inches due to its fully internal focusing mechanism. In performance testing with Imatest, the lens exhibited stellar center resolution at its widest f/2.8 aperture but suffered from soft edges and corners, yielding a center-weighted average of 1,690 lines. However, stopping down dramatically optimizes sharpness, with the lens becoming exceptionally tack-sharp at f/4 (hitting 2,123 lines) and maintaining high resolution up to f/11 (notching 2,095 lines) before diffraction causes softening at smaller apertures like f/16 and f/22. The core advantages of the lens include its true 1:1 magnification capability, a helpful focus limiter switch on the barrel, minimal image distortion, and a robust, weather-resistant build. On the...

The Olympus M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 ED Macro lens is a high-quality, lightweight native macro option for the Micro Four Thirds system that delivers a full-frame equivalent focal length of 120mm. Its high build quality features weather sealing, a metal mount, and a broad, smoothly operating focus ring, all while maintaining a remarkably low weight of 185 grams. Performance pros include a silent, fast Movie and Still Compatible (MSC) autofocus system, minimal auto-corrected vignetting, and a virtually non-existent 0.6% RAW pincushion distortion. Furthermore, its optical performance provides buttery, smooth bokeh, almost zero bokeh fringing at maximum aperture, and excellent frame-wide sharpness when stopped down to its f/5.6 sweet spot. Despite these strengths, the review notes several optical and physical cons. The lens exhibits softer corners at wider apertures, and it suffers from an unusually high level of lateral chromatic aberrations (around 1.5 pixels at the borders) when using medium to small apertures. Out-of-focus bokeh highlights can also display minor imperfections, including outlining and onion-like substructures. Mechanically, the "by-wire" manual focusing mechanism may annoy some users, and the front lens-to-object working distance...

In her review of the M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens for MirrorLessons, Heather concludes that this optic is a must-have for Micro Four Thirds users who love close-up photography, offering immense versatility that extends well into portraiture and architecture. Testing it alongside the Olympus Pen E-P5, she highlights several major pros, including its pin-sharp image quality, robust weather-sealed body, and a Zuiko Extra-Low Reflection Optical (ZERO) coating. She heavily praises the physical Focus Limiter Switch for allowing her to instantly jump to a 1:1 magnification ratio or restrict focus distance ranges, which pairs beautifully with a highly readable Magnification Factor Scale Indicator. Additionally, she notes that the autofocus is lightning-fast when properly limited and appreciates the lens's ability to render smooth, perfectly circular bokeh. However, the review details a few notable cons and operational challenges. While the autofocus performs admirably at mid-to-long distances, Heather admits that using autofocus at a 1:1 magnification ratio is highly inefficient, forcing her to switch entirely to manual focus. She also warns that leaving the Focus Limiter Switch set to the full "0.19m-infinity" range noticeably...

The Olympus M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens is highly praised as a top-tier choice for Micro Four Thirds (MFT) cameras due to its smart build, refined handling, and excellent image quality. Despite having a relatively short 60mm focal length, it utilizes the MFT crop factor to deliver an "effective" 2.0x maximum magnification, behaving similarly to a 120mm lens on a full-frame system while remaining incredibly compact and lightweight. Key design features include a physical focus distance scale calibrated in magnification ratios, a weather-sealed casing, and a fast, virtually silent MSC autofocus system that performs smooth transitions for video capture. Additionally, its internal focusing mechanism ensures the front element does not extend, preserving a natural 10cm working distance between the lens and the subject. The review highlights distinct advantages and disadvantages to consider before purchasing this lens. On the positive side, its major pros include high-quality engineering with a metal mounting plate, an autofocus range limiter that can lock out either the long or short end, and automatic corrections that eliminate issues with distortion and lateral chromatic aberration. Lab tests also...

The Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f2.8 Macro is a prime lens designed for mirrorless Micro Four Thirds cameras, offering a 120mm full-frame equivalent focal length and true 1:1 magnification. Priced at an estimated street price of $499.99, it stands out for its high-quality construction featuring 13 elements in 10 groups, including Extra-low Dispersion (ED) and High Refractive index (HR) glass to minimize chromatic aberrations. In performance testing, it earned a DxOMark score of 17 and a sharpness score of 9P-Mpix, peaking at f/4 with minimal edge softening. It features an MSC autofocus mechanism for fast, quiet operation during video and stills, alongside a unique three-mode focus limiter switch to speed up hunting between 19cm and infinity. The lens presents distinct pros and cons, especially when compared head-to-head against its direct, more expensive competitor, the Panasonic Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm F2.8. On the positive side, its major pros include a dust- and splash-proof housing for outdoor nature photography, exceptional center sharpness at maximum aperture, and category-leading vignetting performance with a score of -0.7EV (outperforming the Panasonic by 2/3 of...

The M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens delivers exceptionally high, consistent image quality with corner-to-corner resolution that rivals or exceeds many lenses tested on larger APS-C sensors. Optically, it performs nearly as well as the legendary Four Thirds Olympus 50mm f/2 macro lens, offering excellent sharpness at all apertures (peaking at f/4) and minimal distortion or vignetting. Its robust build is both dust and splash-proof, making it well-suited for harsh outdoor conditions. Additionally, it achieves a true 1:1 reproduction ratio at a minimum focusing distance of 19 cm, utilizing an internal focusing mechanism that ensures the physical length of the lens remains constant during use. A standout functional advantage of this 60mm lens is its fast, virtually silent internal autofocus system, which is significantly enhanced by a built-in focus distance limiter switch (allowing restrictions like 0.19–0.4m or 0.19m–infinity) to drastically reduce focus hunting. The lens also handles flare and ghosting exceptionally well due to its ZERO coating, and its 7-blade diaphragm produces beautiful depth-of-field effects, though the unrounded blades can cause background light highlights to appear angular rather than...